BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen Face Collusion Investigation in Europe

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The European Commission said it would look into whether Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler had worked together to avoid competing on clean emissions technology.CreditCreditOdd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Germany’s biggest carmakers were already facing public criticism after an emissions cheating scandal at Volkswagen. Now, they are under formal investigation.

The European Commission opened an inquiry on Tuesday into possible collusion among BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen to prevent the development of clean emissions technology. The investigation adds to a series of problems for the German auto industry, the country’s biggest employer and exporter, which is grappling with the consequences of Volkswagen’s diesel deception, as well as a long-term shift toward electric vehicles and the threat of auto tariffs from the United States.

The announcement by the commission, the European Union’s executive arm, comes nearly a year after officials searched the German automakers’ offices as part of an initial inquiry into possible price fixing. The commission said on Tuesday that it had information indicating that the companies had participated in meetings where they discussed technology to limit harmful emissions. The investigation will try to establish whether the automakers sought to limit the development or rollout of systems to reduce harmful nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel cars or filters to reduce emissions from gasoline engine cars.

“These technologies aim at making passenger cars less damaging to the environment,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s competition commissioner, said in a statement. “If proven, this collusion may have denied consumers the opportunity to buy less-polluting cars, despite the technology being available to the manufacturers.”

The commission said it had no information indicating that the companies had coordinated over the use of illegal defeat devices in regulatory testing. German carmakers meet routinely to discuss technical standards for components, but these discussions might be deemed illegal if they agree to limit competition in certain areas.

In its statement, the commission named the three major carmakers, as well as the Volkswagen luxury units Audi and Porsche, as part of the inquiry. All three companies said they would not be commenting on the case, but were cooperating with investigators.

The companies — the commission referred to them as the “circle of five” — have spent decades promoting diesel engines, and are still struggling with the fallout of the emissions scandal in which some 11 million Volkswagen vehicles worldwide were fitted with illegal software that could detect when the cars were undergoing emissions tests.

As a result, sales of diesel cars across Europe have been falling, while sales of electric cars are growing sharply, a trend that German carmakers have been slow to capitalize on. BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen could also suffer if President Trump follows through on a threat to impose hefty tariffs on European cars imported into the United States.

Volkswagen, which has admitted to the cheating, in particular has not made sufficient progress in repairing the shortcomings in company culture that led to the scandal, according to a recent report by a lawyer appointed to monitor the company’s behavior.

This year, Munich prosecutors arrested Rupert Stadler, the head ofAudi, and federal prosecutors in the United States indicted Martin Winterkorn, the former chief executive of Volkswagen, on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the government. Mr. Winterkorn has denied the charges.

The industry also has to deal with an increasingly tough regulatory environment as opposition to diesel engines grows: The German city of Hamburg banned older diesel cars from high-traffic areas because of health concerns, and other European cities are considering similar measures.

“The automotive industry was once a jewel in Europe’s industrial crown,” said Greg Archer, the clean-vehicles director at the advocacy group Transport and Environment, “but its global reputation is now deeply tarnished and cannot be trusted anymore.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: German Automakers Face Collusion Inquiry In Emissions Scandal. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe